Relieve Tension

5

And all night, it was.

Flopping down onto the cool wooden floor, Hermione breathed out, "I cannot believe there's that much work to be done into doing all of this."

Ginny walked into her line of sight, placing her hands on her hips as she replied, "Well, this obviously isn't like how you studied back at Hogwarts."

"Clearly not." She whispered as her eyes shut.

"No no." Pansy clapped as she made way towards the duo.

Hermione groaned. "No more, Parkinson. That's enough."

"Parkinson?" She shook her head as her hand dashed in front of the latter's face. "Up we go, Granger. Come on."

Groaning louder to annoy the teacher, her hand attached to the other as Pansy pulled her up. The latter moving her hands into Hermione's hair and fixing it.

Forehead creasing, she stepped backwards and patted her hair down. "We're practicing. Of course it's not going to look it's best."

Pansy tilted her head as her brows came together. "It never did."

Hermione's mouth opened, astonished. Pansy smirked.

"Rude."

"The best at it." She winked.

"You know, Granger." She started, turning and walking back to her pole. "Once you start officially," Hands grasping the metal, she lifted up and turned upside down, legs crossed. "you could always change your appearance."

Hermione looked around as Ginny and Luna both nodded in agreement.

"Yes, Hermione." Replied Luna as she spun around in circles on her toes, face facing downward as she concentrated on getting one foot after the other. "You don't have to go out as yourself if you're not comfortable. You could change things up and no one would ever know Hermione Granger is a stripper."

The listener lightly blushed as her eyes connected with Ginny, who was in a split on the pole sideways with her hands in the middle. She nodded rapidly as a closed lipped smile formed on her face. "Yes, Hermione! That's perfect for you!"

"Seems like the right thing to do."

"Right you are, Granger."

Her head turned just in time to see Pansy air walk her way to the top of the pole with one hand, wrapping a leg around and sliding down seductively as her eyes drifted towards one of the mirrors, trying to see if the movement was good enough.

Hermione thought it was.

Good enough.

Breathing in deep and exhaling out, her hands interlocked around the pole and she lifted herself up until somewhat doing a split in the air. She smiled triumphantly to herself. Best she could do so far.

A lot of practice was in order.

"Well, what do you think are some changes I should make?"

"Hair."

"Eyes."

"Face."

Somehow using her abdomen the most, she ended upside down with legs locked as Pansy had done earlier. Looking around, they were all in that position, hair flowing downward and shirts lifting. Luna giggled as she noticed their positions and soon enough, they all laughed.

Because they could.

"So, basically change everything?"

"Well, not everything." Pansy said.